The Exchanges

Q So first off, you were not, you were not leading Mycroft when I last did my episode with Mycroft. So something changed. They pulled you out of charitable giving and back into the business from an operating perspective. How'd they do it?

A That's right. Um, well, uh, to be honest, I was a backer on the Mark II Kickstarter project, and so I've been following Mycroft for a while. And, uh, when Josh reached out and was looking for some additional, uh, high-level help at the company, um, I took a look at it and, um, I decided that this was a good time in my life, and Mycroft's mission merges, you know, perfectly with the work I was doing at my foundation, and, ah, and the company itself, the technology, the, ah, working with hardware, working with software, working with community, ah, that's all in my work experience as well, and I'm really passionate about all those things. So, um, it was really just a perfect combination of things that, uh, that got me interested.

AI assessment note: “when Josh reached out and was looking for some additional, uh, high-level help”

Q Let's fast forward here. We'll go forward a year. You have some products shipped. Is there a software play here, or is it pure make margin on a hardware speaker sale?

A No, um, it's, it's almost entirely a software play. What we're really promoting here is a platform. Mycroft is promoting a platform. What we have is, um, you know, the smart speakers are sort of our, uh, The way we get people interested in the platform, because, you know, not very many people use voice interaction on their PCs, um, or their laptops, right? Um, the smart speaker is sort of a, a Trojan horse, if you will, that like has kind of tricked people into thinking that voice interaction is new and, and desirable, but it's been around the ability to do this. It's been around for a long time. It's just that finding this, um, Uh, you know, the right killer app to make it understandable to the user how voice interaction can be useful, uh, you know, took a while. Um, so smart speakers are really just the entree into, uh, what is going to be basically ubiquitous voice interaction everywhere, and so that's what we provide is a platform that enables OEMs to, uh, voice enable their products and not have to worry about any of the details of how to create You know, the, the multitude of AI systems that are required to recognize a person's voice, understand their intent.

AI assessment note: “it's almost entirely a software play. What we're really promoting here is a platform.”

Q a hundred bucks to make a speaker. You can't give away a million speakers. You don't have a hundred million dollars sitting in your bank, right? And Amazon could. So like the first question is how do you get these speakers like distribution? So, you know, as quickly as possible, so that more people rely on your open source OEM privacy friendly SDK that you're building or platform you're building.

A Well, like I said, initially our distribution is basically to developers because we want to get developer support for our community. Um, but we have interest, you know, we've, we've been in talks with the big, uh, uh, you know, the big box retail chains, right? There are people who want to put a privacy respecting solution on their store shelves. You know, we're talking about, you know, Walmart and target and, you know, these companies want this, um, and, uh, it's just not available. So, Once it's available, then we can start to talk to people about, um, white labeling. That's going to be one initiative we have. Um, you know, it, we're also going to talk to OEMs about cost reduction versions of this. Um, so distribution is really about finding the right partners. Okay. I don't want to get into, you know, being a hardware distribution company. I want to find the partners who are going to build Our technology into their products and then distribute it.

AI assessment note: “I want to find the partners who are going to build Our technology into their products”

Q institutional is going to come in and look at is the current cap table and is entering risk. And one of the risks they'll look at is, well, if one, just one of these 1600 investors hold down on some decision, it could tank the whole company, essentially. How do you convince the VC that you potentially work with on this on this new round that that's not a risk?

A Uh, well, there's a couple of ways. Um, first of all, we have two classes of shares. We have voting shares and non-voting shares. So, All this, um, the cohort of the crowdfunding investors are all non-voting shares. So that's one issue. Um, secondly, as I said, you know, we keep our investors happy, but, um, you know, there are ways around this. We may have to, you know, uh, do some, uh, creative, um, uh, corporate, uh, restructuring, um, you know, in the same way that maybe an angel fund, uh, creates, uh, a sort of, um, Company that, uh, serves all of its investors. We may, you know, end up creating a, a sub entity that, um, you know, uh, encapsulates the crowdfunding investors and to simplify the, you know, the cap table at the top level. Um, that's just, just one idea.

AI assessment note: “the cohort of the crowdfunding investors are all non-voting shares.”

Q And, um, Did you buy the company basically? I mean, you started as an investor. Did you basically come in and buy the company?

A No, I did not. Uh, nope. I came in as, as an investor. I came in, um, you know, basically I'm, uh, Uh, you know, Josh and I are peers. We work hand in hand. Um, you know, Josh is, is a great guy. He's got a great understanding of the market and the technology and, you know, and I, I want him around, right? So, um, we work hand in hand on this, you know, I'm bringing my product development experience and, you know, and he's bringing his, uh, you know, his deep understanding of the, of the market and the technology and, um, you know, My main purpose here in joining the company was, uh, to basically to bring some experience in getting product out. You know, I, I've been through this a couple of times, and I know how difficult it can be to get a product, uh, shift, to focus on a product that, yeah, that you can actually shift.

AI assessment note: “No, I did not. Uh, nope. I came in as, as an investor.”

Q So for those people that missed the first episode, just give us the quick keynote here. What does Mycroft do? What do people pay you for?

A Ah, right. So, uh, Mycroft makes a privacy first open source voice assistant. So what's, uh, what's really important about this is that we allow the users to control their own experience. So, uh, we don't consider the users our users. We're building a community of people, and this community includes people who are developers, people who are, uh, assist us with contributing their data, and, uh, and people who just want to have a privacy experience, uh, in their own home. You know, putting something that's always listening in home can be a very invasive feeling, uh, experience, and we want people to feel safe and comfortable in their homes and, uh, Uh, privacy is, you know, is something that you should be able to have in your home.

AI assessment note: “Mycroft makes a privacy first open source voice assistant.”

Q market, you will, I will, I will post this everywhere on all my socials. I was completely wrong. They killed it. Look at what they've done before we wrap up. So let's just talk again about software real quick. Let's say you've got a million devices out there. What is the software subscription look like? Are you charging developers to use it? And if so, what's the monthly price point?

A Um, so it's, it's a completely open source system. It's free to developers. It's free to OEMs to integrate into their system. Um, what we charge is the consumers for basically upgrades. So, uh, you get all the basic services, everything that you need to do your normal everyday activities on a smart speaker or a voice assistant that comes for free. Anybody can make an account and it'll just work. In fact, on a Linux system, you can go download a snap install with one click right now and go test it out. Um, it's free to make an account. Um, Down the road will provide premium features like custom voices, um, additional languages, different accents. You know, I think that it's really important that, um, the technology that we use today reflects our users. And as we move to a voice interface, you know, this has, uh, it has the trappings of a personality. And I think people want to see, you know, their own values, their own culture reflected in the technology they use. And, uh, that's just, you know, that's something that we're going to focus on. Um, so those will be upgrade paths. There'll be premium features like access to sites that actually cost us money to use their API. Like if we're providing stock quotes or, you know, real time analytics and various, you know, business markets or things like that, that'd be part of an upgrade. Um, and, uh, you know, the really there's, uh, th…

AI assessment note: “It's a completely open source system. It's free to developers.”